HufflyPuffly
Well-Known Member
The big day had arrived, our step back into the adrenaline fuelled world of three phases of opportunities to fail and entertain the masses 
. Now I had wanted to re-vamp our eventing outfits but as baby horse decided she was due another pus party and an emergency vet bill, we went as we were smelly hat and all 
.
First phase the dressage, and the test was a bit of a shock to the system as it merely contained walk, trot, canter with some 20m circles :confused3:. So for a horse now competing at medium this should have been easy, a walk in the park, so simple we could do it with our eyes shut and one hoof tied behind our backs! I was feeling confident for this phase, until we entered the warm up, the warm up that was on grass and Topaz revealed the galloping stunned giraffe had never left us . It was like trying to wrestle a rhino to the ground whilst attempting to maintain dressage elegance... It was not pretty, the ground did not help, and Topaz did actually try and run the judge over at the end , I think he was so pleased that he was protected by a car he somewhat shockingly gave us an undeserved 35!
I did have to giggle at her reaction to the start of the day, her delight was obvious but I do wish she would have given me 5 minutes of attention. Popped her away and she tried to act innocent .
Next up SJ'ing and I was feeling very apprehensive by this point! She'd been a spooky hot mess in the dressage, adding obstacles into this seemed foolish! However we were there, we had indeed survived the dressage so we could at least attempt it! Took her over a cross pole from trot and she seemed ok, took her over the practise oxer set up and blooming nora did Topaz re-awake and realise jumping was on offer. She was a 'touch' excited about the jumping phases , I think taking her in a snaffle for all three phases may have been an ambitious plan overall...
However! We did actually manage a flukey clear in the SJ, with only one minor spook, slip, take a stride out and JUMP moment.
Topaz's cannot canter and spook at cars that shouldn't be in SJ'ing rings
Flyer over 5 away from the car of doom!
Nice shot over the rustic
Too close to number 8, nah Topazs are like tiggers
This was the result of spook, slip, remove stride and jump, looks much nicer than it felt!
Onto the XC and for 90% of the course she was on it like a car bonnet. Beautiful rhythm and jumping well, I was seriously impressed as she didn't nap at all at the start and seemed really eager to do the job in hand. One and two simple rail fences we popped over easily, three a ski slope I had to wrestle the rhino to slow down the hill to the boggy ground, but she did listen and jumped 3 sweetly. Onto four another ski slope type at the top of the hill, then onto the first combination fence. She was a somewhat disrespectful of me saying slow down, down the hill as we have to turn, but did navigate the turn and step very easily so maybe she did know better :lol: she seems more nimble now she's a bit older!
6 and 7 were an interesting combination, with a curving line between tall trees which tried to prompt a right hand run out, however despite spooking at the trees, we were over! Onto 8 a slightly beefy hanging log with lots of flowers, small look but onwards. Bombed up the next double of steps to log, (this is where we impressed Lucinda by taking a stride out ), then the ditch to green house. Slight hesitation but successfully made it over both and on to the chair fence, super rhythm by this point and wizzed though the water she did try to tow me out over the open route, I thankfully managed to persuade her to just canter out like the flags indicated .
Topaz was now flying so 13 we took on a slight angle (Topaz may not understand optimum time rather than speed rounds), over 14 and onto the roll top to skinny combo. Over the hanging log to the Topaz eating double of green houses, well less the jumps were a problem than the poor fence judge and spectators . As I refused to let her jump it from a standstill and be pinged off three from home, we collected the 20 penalties and represented, no problems the second time and despite a hairy jump over the last we were home!
Finished 7th in our section and had the best day, Topaz loved every second of it, crazy black beast is clearly never going to grow up but I still think she's amazeballs!!!! Will have to turn our attention back to dressage for regionals but think some more eventing should be done before the end of the season .
. Now I had wanted to re-vamp our eventing outfits but as baby horse decided she was due another pus party and an emergency vet bill, we went as we were smelly hat and all .First phase the dressage, and the test was a bit of a shock to the system as it merely contained walk, trot, canter with some 20m circles :confused3:. So for a horse now competing at medium this should have been easy, a walk in the park, so simple we could do it with our eyes shut and one hoof tied behind our backs! I was feeling confident for this phase, until we entered the warm up, the warm up that was on grass
and Topaz revealed the galloping stunned giraffe had never left us . It was like trying to wrestle a rhino to the ground whilst attempting to maintain dressage elegance... It was not pretty, the ground did not help, and Topaz did actually try and run the judge over at the end , I think he was so pleased that he was protected by a car he somewhat shockingly gave us an undeserved 35!I did have to giggle at her reaction to the start of the day, her delight was obvious but I do wish she would have given me 5 minutes of attention
. Popped her away and she tried to act innocent .
Next up SJ'ing and I was feeling very apprehensive by this point! She'd been a spooky hot mess in the dressage, adding obstacles into this seemed foolish! However we were there, we had indeed survived the dressage so we could at least attempt it! Took her over a cross pole from trot and she seemed ok, took her over the practise oxer set up and blooming nora did Topaz re-awake and realise jumping was on offer
. She was a 'touch' excited about the jumping phases , I think taking her in a snaffle for all three phases may have been an ambitious plan overall... However! We did actually manage a flukey clear in the SJ, with only one minor spook, slip, take a stride out and JUMP moment
. Topaz's cannot canter and spook at cars that shouldn't be in SJ'ing rings
Flyer over 5 away from the car of doom!
Nice shot over the rustic
Too close to number 8, nah Topazs are like tiggers
This was the result of spook, slip, remove stride and jump, looks much nicer than it felt!
Onto the XC and for 90% of the course she was on it like a car bonnet
. Beautiful rhythm and jumping well, I was seriously impressed as she didn't nap at all at the start and seemed really eager to do the job in hand. One and two simple rail fences we popped over easily, three a ski slope I had to wrestle the rhino to slow down the hill to the boggy ground, but she did listen and jumped 3 sweetly. Onto four another ski slope type at the top of the hill, then onto the first combination fence. She was a somewhat disrespectful of me saying slow down, down the hill as we have to turn, but did navigate the turn and step very easily so maybe she did know better :lol: she seems more nimble now she's a bit older! 6 and 7 were an interesting combination, with a curving line between tall trees which tried to prompt a right hand run out, however despite spooking at the trees
, we were over! Onto 8 a slightly beefy hanging log with lots of flowers, small look but onwards. Bombed up the next double of steps to log, (this is where we impressed Lucinda by taking a stride out ), then the ditch to green house. Slight hesitation but successfully made it over both and on to the chair fence, super rhythm by this point and wizzed though the water she did try to tow me out over the open route, I thankfully managed to persuade her to just canter out like the flags indicated . Topaz was now flying so 13 we took on a slight angle (Topaz may not understand optimum time rather than speed rounds
), over 14 and onto the roll top to skinny combo. Over the hanging log to the Topaz eating double of green houses, well less the jumps were a problem than the poor fence judge and spectators . As I refused to let her jump it from a standstill and be pinged off three from home, we collected the 20 penalties and represented, no problems the second time and despite a hairy jump over the last we were home!
Finished 7th in our section and had the best day, Topaz loved every second of it
, crazy black beast is clearly never going to grow up but I still think she's amazeballs!!!! Will have to turn our attention back to dressage for regionals but think some more eventing should be done before the end of the season .
. 
